Marthinus van der Walt (L) and his brother Sarel van der Walt
Marthinus van der Walt, 35, took the stand to offer his version of events after pleading not guilty to hijacking, kidnapping and killing Louis Heyns in May 2013.
He testified that Heyns, a well-known paediatrician and academic, got out of his black Peugeot in the evening and approached him in a bushy area near the ocean in Strand. He wanted to know what Van der Walt charged for sexual favours.
“We stepped into the bush, where he grabbed me. He said: ‘You expect me to pay you but your penis won’t even get hard’. That is when I hit him in different places,” Van der Walt told his lawyer Gert Fourie in Afrikaans.
“I was just angry. I can’t say how long I hit him for … that is when I realised I had seriously injured him. It was wrong. It was not my intention to do something like that.”
Heyns’s wife and other family members shook their heads at hearing his testimony.
‘The drugs made me do it’
Van der Walt said he and his brother Sarel had travelled from Malmesbury to Strand early that morning to take drugs and drink in the bushes next to the Supertube. Sarel had beer and he had a vodka cooler.
He also smoked Tik (methamphetamine) and dagga, and took Mandrax. His brother only drank beer.
Van der Walt told the court his thinking was impaired by the drugs and alcohol.
“My thoughts were not clean and pure. Tik makes you angry and argumentative. Sometimes it makes you a bit paranoid. If it wasn’t for the drugs, what happened wouldn’t have happened.”
Sarel apparently stopped the assault. Marthinus used Heyns’s belt and shoelaces to tie the victim up while he was on the ground. He felt for a pulse but there was none.
“I didn’t know what to do. My paranoia told me that the police wouldn’t believe me no matter what I told them.”
‘I felt scared’
He decided to take Heyns’s car keys and flee the scene with his brother. They later returned to check he was dead. They buried him in a shallow sand grave.
Van der Walt told Fourie he did not kill the doctor with the intention of stealing his car.
He said he put his SIM card into Heyns’s phone because his own phone battery was dead and he needed to make calls.
He felt scared the following day and tried to get rid of the car, the court heard. A few days after that, he decided to contact a police officer acquaintance to tell him what had happened and ask for his advice.
Van der Walt said he knew his actions were wrong and never intended for Heyns to die.
Last year, Sarel van der Walt pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to the murder and theft. He reached a plea bargain with the State and is currently serving a seven-year sentence
